THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

We’ve all done it. Gotten sick. Gone on vacation. Just plain forgot. Perhaps, even, procrastinated for no good reason. And when the piper needs paying, the fortunate among us can simply pony up and pay fines for overdue materials from Lincoln Library. A lot of folks cannot, and so they are on the blacklist, barred from checking out library materials until their debt is paid. Some of these folks are kids, and kids, more than ever, should be reading honest-to-goodness books these days instead of learning about the world from Twitter. And so Lincoln Library has instituted a Christmas program whereby goodhearted and understanding folks can pay fines owed by kids who, for whatever reason, didn’t bring stuff back when they should have and so have lost library privileges. Simply take one of the construction-paper snowmen or mittens or snowflakes, each of which shows what’s owed by a child, from the display in the library’s atrium to the circulation desk and hand over cash or write out a check. Debts range from $11 to well over $100, but the library will accept as much, or as little, as you care to give – if you can’t pay the full amount, others, hopefully, will chip in. And if all goes well, a child somewhere will receive a letter from the library: welcome back, and just in time for Christmas.